Google Earth Engine: Satellite Timelapse Images Of The World 1984-2012

Google posted some amazing timelapse images today of from 1984 to 2012. The satellite images were collected over 40 years during a collaborative effort by NASA and the United State Geological Society.

Google started working with the USGS in 2009 to make this archive available online. According to Google, the Google Earth Engine was used to sift through 2,068,467 images, that’s 909 terabytes of data. That gets you an image in every spot on earth for every year since 1984. If you were wondering, a year’s worth of images compiled together for one year is 1.78 terapixels.

Today these images are available to view in HTML5 format on Google’s Timelapse website. Pretty incredible to see the sprawl/crawl of humanity as cities develop. While you can navigate to anywhere in the world, Google has some highlighted locations: Las Vegas, Nevada, Wyoming coal mines, Amazon forests, Alaska, Saudia Arabia, Dubai, Iran, and the Aral Sea; all amazing.